By Francisco Beneke*

Venezuela is a country with a high level of state intervention in the economy. Comparatively speaking, it has one of the highest yearly average investment rates in Latin America in the period between 1992 and 2012.[1] However, a big portion comes from the public sector, on average around 45 percent.[2]

The high level of government involvement in the economy is latent not only in its high share of investment but also in the widespread use of price controls. Venezuela has a Fair Prices Law that gives The Superintendencia Nacional para la Defensa de los Derechos Socioeconómicos the power to regulate the price of goods and services of any product in any stage of the production chain according to their strategic importance and benefit to the population (Art. 11, number 3).[3] The authority has issued several decrees with maximum prices for a wide array of…